Oct 27, 2011

Eloise, Eloise, Where Have You Been

We've been to South Bank, to visit the Queen.

I sort of mentioned on Monday morning to Eloise that the Queen would be in town, and would she like to see her; she seemed quite keen. I thought it might be the sort of thing that memories that really endure are made of, and an opportunity that probably shouldn't be missed, so I cleared it with Anderson the Teach and arranged to pick her up at 11 o'clock when they have "Little Lunch."

And, equipped with the tow-along bike, and a back-pack full of lunch, off we set down the road. No punctures this time! But that tow-along doesn't half make riding difficult, especially the uphill bits going down the bike track from Victoria Park to Roma Street Parklands.

There were some cool downhill bits though where we picked up quite a clip, and going across the Kurilpa Bridge was nice.

As we got near South Bank we started to encounter crowds, and decided to ditch the bike, locking it to a railing, before proceeding on foot into the heart of the human maelstrom.

The sun was quite strong on the concrete apron of the Cultural Forecourt as we ambled around the back of the crowd. We bought some flags and Eloise waved them around my face for a while, irritatingly, before settling down to munch on her food.

We were early and had time to pick a spot where we thought we might get a good view of the proceedings, and a huge TV screen had been installed carrying a feed from Channel 7 showing pictures of the boat carrying the Queen up the river on a seemingly eternal voyage to us.

We couldn't estimate how many people were awaiting her. The crowds were four or five deep around the railings. It soon became clear that Eloise would need to be shoulder-mounted in order to see anything and I would be the blind conveyer.

And so it transpired as, after much waiting, cheers arose in the distant crowd by the river and slowly made their way towards us.

Eloise was given the phone and agreed to make a video. "Can you see her?" I asked - "Yes I can see her" was the reply. "Are you getting pictures of her?" ".... Yes..."



Well according to the ladies nearby, she was wearing a lovely lime green outfit, and didn't it suit her, she wore something similar on occasion such-and-such. I didn't see a thing. I'd thought for a moment that I had a convenient dip in the landscape of headwear in front of me, but then the hands went up with cameras and phones and i-Pads(!), and the Queen is a little old lady anyway, and the potential view was obscured.

Before long the show was over and we headed back, struggling up the hill and stopping for a Mars Bar before delivering Eloise back to school for 2pm, tired out.

Later, she vomited copiously with probably heat-stroke. But she was fine the next day, so it was worth it! Probably!

No comments:

Post a Comment